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Govt issues 22 more tele licenses

New Delhi, Feb 28: The government Thursday issued 22 more licenses to new players, including Idea Cellular and realty major Unitech, a move that would bring in competition and lower mobile tariffs.

Unitech Developers have been given licenses for 12 circles including in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Bihar.

Birlas-owned Idea Cellular got licenses for eight circles. This would make Idea a pan-India operator. Idea was given license in Punjab yesterday on a day when the government issued a total of 22 permits.

Datacom Solutions, in which Videocon has a majority stake, has been awarded licenses for two more circles in addition to 19 given yesterday, a senior official in the Department of Telecom (DoT) said.

On spectrum (radio frequency), officials said that no final decision has been taken as yet as to when the process of allocation would begin. The DoT is assessing the availability in each circle, besides continuing negotiations with the Defence Ministry to get spectrum vacated at the earliest.

Meanwhile, on a petition filed by Idea and Spice Communications, the telecom tribunal TDSAT today passed an interim order that the date of application of new players be considered for issuance of licenses and spectrum.

The officials said application date has no meaning as most players are being issued permits simultaneously, and in all probability, spectrum would also be allotted in a similar fashion. Spice Communications, which was given LoI last month for five circles, is likely to get licenses along with Unitech tomorrow for the remaining 10 circles.

As of now, licenses are being issued on the basis of first-come-first-served as per the payment of license fees.

Indiabulls Real Estate buys entire stake in UK's Dev Property Development
28 Feb, 2008...........................MUMBAI: Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd said on Thursday its board had approved acquiring the entire stake in Dev Property Development Plc in a 138- million-pound sterling (10.9 billion rupees) share-swap deal.

Dev, which listed on London's junior stock exchange in 2007, is promoted by the Indian property developer and holds stakes in several of Indiabulls' projects in India.

Indiabulls Real Estate will issue its own shares to Dev's investors, which include Farallon Capital, Fidelity, Govt of Singapore and Citigroup.

Dev shares closed on Wednesday at 75.50 pence, valuing the firm at around 120 million pounds sterling. Several Indian developers, keen to expand in a booming urban real estate market, have raised funds from London's AIM exchange in the past two years. These include Mumbai-based developers such as the Rahejas and Hiranandani group.

Oil boils again, rises towards $102/barrel
29 Feb, 2008, 0356 hrs IST

Oil rose towards $102 a barrel on Thursday, trading within sight of its record high, as the US dollar sank to a new low and after militant attacks cut supply from Nigeria, Africa’s top exporter.

Mahindra Forgings, Mahindra Ugine in power supply deal Wardha Power
29 Feb, 2008.....................MUMBAI: Mahindra Forgings has entered into a power delivery agreement with Wardha Power Co for 5MW for its Chakan plant at an investment of Rs 3.25 crore. Mahindra Ugine Steel Company also has entered into an agreement with Wardha Power for 35MW at its Khopoli plant for Rs 22.75 crore. Wardha Power expects supply to commence from Dec 2009. The agreement will be valid for 25 years. At 10:34 am, Mahindra Forgings shares were up 7.07 at Rs 219.50 and Mahindra Ugine shares were up 0.95 per cent at Rs 74 on BSE.

budget : Central sales tax cut from 3% to 2%
Govt withdraws banking transaction tax
Revenue implication of Indirect taxation to be Rs 5900 crore
Direct taxation changes to be revenue neutral
Levy on STT only on option premiums
Commodities transaction tax introduced similar to STT
Short term capital gains to be taxed at 15%
5 year tax holiday to 2,3& 4 star hotels in UNESCO

it seems stock market is recovring.it may consolidate due to good budget

Oil Tops $103 a Barrel Before Retreating
Friday February 29, 7:34 am
Oil Briefly Tops $103 a Barrel for 1st Time As US Dollar Weakness Draws Investors

Oil prices briefly surpassed $103 a barrel for the first time Friday as persistent weakness in the U.S. dollar and the prospect of lower interest rates attracted fresh money to the oil market.
Light, sweet crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped to a new trading record of $103.05 a barrel in electronic trading before slipping back to $102.07 a barrel, down 52 cents, by midday in Europe.

Inflation jumps to 4.89 %

New Delhi, Feb 29: Costly petroleum products and some food items pushed inflation rate to nine-month high of 4.89 percent for the week ended February 16, vindicating the cautious approach adopted by RBI in its quarterly monetary review.

The data partly captures the rise in petroleum prices announced on February 14. The government hiked petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2 and Re 1 a litre, respectively.

The wholesale price index-based inflation rate was 4.35 percent in the week preceding the one under review, and 6.05 percent in the corresponding week a year ago, according to official figures released today.

This is the fourth week in a row when inflation rate is more than 4 percent and is nearing RBI tolerance level of 5 percent for the current fiscal.

During the week under review, prices of petrol moved up by 6 percent, high speed diesel oil and light speed diesel oil by 3 percent each, while bitumen got costlier by 6 percent.

While prices of wheat, maize, urad and fruits and vegetables declined 1 percent, gram got expensive by 3 percent, and jowar by 2 percent.

In his budget speech today, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that keeping inflation under check is one of the cornerstones of the government`s policy.

China`s inflation rate seen rising to 6.9%

Shanghai, Feb 28: China's consumer inflation will hit 6.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, up from 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, state media said Thursday, citing a key state think tank.

Economic growth will slow to 10.5 percent in the first quarter from 11.2 percent in the previous quarter, the China Securities Journal reported, citing a report from the State Information Centre.

The report suggested authorities should stick to a tight monetary policy but avoid immediate interest rate hikes as faster price rises in the first quarter were mainly due to severe snowstorms this winter.

"Interest rates hikes should be suspended temporarily to avoid any drastic swings in the domestic stock market," the report said.

Instead, the report urged authorities to control growth in money supply through hikes in the reserve ratio, or the money commercial banks need to keep in reserve, and stepping up open market operations to mop up excess liquidity.

The consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, spiked to an 11-year high of 7.1 percent in January after the worst winter weather in five decades hit China late in the month. Inflation hit 4.8 cent for all of 2007.

US economy on verge of recession: Obama

Austin, Texas, Feb 29: Democratic candidate Barack Obama said on late Thursday the US economy is "on the brink of a recession" and blamed economic policies espoused by President George Bush and Republican presidential contender John McCain.

Obama mocked a more optimistic economic picture painted by Bush at a White House news conference just moments earlier: "People are struggling in the midst of an economy that George Bush says is not a recession but is experienced differently by folks on the ground."

For the second day in a row, Obama focused on the likely Republican nominee McCain and all but ignored Hillary Rodham Clinton's continuing campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, although key Democratic primaries come up on next Tuesday in Texas and Ohio.

"We are not standing on the brink of recession because of forces beyond our control," Obama told a town hall forum in Austin.

"This was not an inevitable part of the business cycle. It was a failure of leadership in Washington - a Washington where George Bush hands out billions of tax cuts to the wealthiest few for eight long years, and John McCain promises to make those same tax cuts permanent, embracing the central principle of the Bush economic program."

In remarks Obama aides suggested were a rebuke to McCain as well as Bush, Obama said more is needed than just "to change faces in the White House," but that the country "needs a change of leadership"

Obama spoke shortly after Bush told a news conference in Washington that the country is not headed into a recession. While expressing concern about slowing economic growth, Bush rejected for now any additional stimulus efforts.

"We've acted robustly," Bush said. His forecast was rosier than that of many mainstream economists. Obama offered a sharply different view: "Despite the slogans, we've got millions of Americans that are being left behind."

He said he was "the only candidate in this race to propose a genuine middle-class tax cut." And he added, the nation needs as president a leader who "doesn't defend lobbyists as part of the system, but sees them as part of the problem."